PERSONNEL

Issue no. 41, September 2002

The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-Earth Observing System (AMSR-E)
is one in a suite of science instruments on NASA's Earth Observing System
(EOS) Aqua satellite. Aqua, a sun-synchronous polar orbiting platform, is one
of a series of spacecraft developed by NASA's Earth Science Enterprise to obtain
information for the advancement of Earth System Science.

Aqua launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on May 4, 2002,
at 2:55 a.m. (Pacific Time).
NSIDC will archive and distribute the ASMR-E data products to users. NSIDC will
also archive and distribute higher-level snow and ice products from the Moderate
Resolution Imaging Spectro-radiometer (MODIS) aboard Aqua. (NSIDC has archived
and distributed higher-level snow and ice products from the MODIS on Terra since
shortly after Terra was launched in December 1999).

The six instruments on Aqua will gather information about all forms of Earth's
water and the global water cycle. This information complements data retrieved
by instruments aboard Terra, which concentrates on landmass studies. Terra crosses
the equator in a descending orbit at about 10:30 a.m. each day, whereas Aqua
will cross the equator in an ascending orbit at 1:30 p.m. The complementary
paths of the two satellites will provide insight into diurnal cycling of important
geophysical parameters, such as ocean circulation and precipitation.

The AMSR-E instrument improves the spatial resolution of observations made
by earlier generations of passive microwave instruments (e.g. SMMR and SSM/I)
and retrieves information in more frequencies than its predecessors. With the
capability to improve the observations of the Earth's surface and atmosphere
inherent in EOS instruments such as AMSR-E, researchers expect to improve the
applications that use data derived from the remote sensing instruments. The
AMSR-E will measure passive microwave radiation, allowing for derivation of
many parameters, including cloud properties, radiative energy flux, precipitation,
land surface wetness, sea surface temperatures, sea ice, snow cover and sea
surface wind fields.
NSIDC will also provide data management and related services for AMSR-E validation
experiments. In addition, CIRES-affiliated NSIDC researchers are actively involved
in AMSR-E validation efforts, specifically for snow and ice products.

The Level 1A products from AMSR-E will be in Hierarchical Data Format (HDF). The AMSR-E Levels 2 and 3 data products will be in HDF-EOS.
AMSR-E data products are expected to be available for distribution to users
in May 2003. In the months between launch of the Aqua satellite and availability
of data products, AMSR-E science team members will be performing calibration
and evaluating algorithm performance. For more information on AMSR-E and its
data products, please see AMSR-E at NSIDC.

The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for the Earth Observing System (AMSR-E),
onboard NASA's Aqua spacecraft, began sending high quality data on June
1, 2002. Initial (uncalibrated) data gathered from the AMSR-E has delivered
impressive pictures of the planet's brightness temperatures from the 89.0 GHz
vertical and horizontal polarization channels and the 23.8 GHz vertical polarization
channel, averaged over the 3-day period June 2-4, 2002. For color image, refer
to the AQUA Newsroom.
Image courtesy of JAXA.

New Land Ice Database

GLIMS (Global Land Ice Measure-ments from Space) is a project to create
the world's first global GIS (Geographic Information System) of glaciers.
The project was initiated by Hugh Kieffer at the USGS in Flagstaff, Arizona,
and involves almost 50 institutions worldwide.

The design and implementation of the database, housed at NSIDC, is essentially
complete, and some initial glacier data have been inserted in order to
test the ingest process. NSIDC expects to ingest much more data in the
coming months as participating institutions begin to extract glaciological
data from newly acquired ASTER imagery.

A methodology for analysis of digital versions of the medium scale glacier
maps in the World Atlas of Snow and Ice Resources, together with ASTER
data, has been developed by Dr. Tatiana Khromova, a visiting Fulbright
Scholar from the Institute of Geography, Moscow, at NSIDC. The digital
maps can also be used for visualization of the World Glacier Inventory
(WGI) and can serve as a historical module for the GLIMS database.

Detail of ASTER image of a tidewater
glacier system in southwest Greenland (see above map). With its 15 m resolution,
ASTER is already providing a wealth of new information about the current
state of glaciers around the world. ASTER images are available from LP DAAC.

Antarctic Master Directory Holdings and Usage Increasing

The Antarctic Master Directory (AMD), an online directory of antarctic scientific
data, now contains more than 2,400 data set descriptions, including more than
290 contributed by U.S. antarctic scientists and data managers. Usage of the
system by researchers searching for antarctic data has tripled during the last
year.
The NSF Office of Polar Programs (OPP)-funded U.S. Antarctic Data Coordination
Center (USADCC) site provides access to the AMD, easy-to-use tools to create and enter data set descriptions,
tools to search the AMD, tutorials and useful antarctic resources.

This summer, the USADCC sent out reminders to NSF-funded antarctic scientists
about their obligations related to the NSF Office of Polar Programs (OPP) Guidelines
and Award Conditions for Scientific Data. We encourage scientists to contact
us for assistance concerning the data policy and usage of the tools for creating
data set descriptions.

Glaciological Data Report #30 Published

In June, NSIDC published Glaciological Data Report #30 (GD-30), entitled Twenty-Fifth
Anniversary: Monitoring an Evolving Cryosphere. Summary of the NSIDC Special
Session at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, December 10-14, 2001.
This issue contains material relating to the celebration of the 25th Anniversary
of the transfer of the World Data Center (WDC) for Glaciology from the U.S.
Geological Survey to the University of Colorado at Boulder. The celebrations
included a workshop in Boulder held on October 11, 2001, and a special session
at the Fall 2001 American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting in San Francisco.
The report includes a summary of the panel discussion held at the Boulder workshop,
as well as abstracts and selected papers from the AGU special session. Also
included are a history of WDC for Glaciology/NSIDC and a summary of publications
authored by NSIDC staff since 1990.

Copies of GD-30 are currently being mailed out to session participants and
to those who have previously received Glaciological Data Reports. GD-30 will
also be available online in PDF format. If you would like a copy of the printed
report, please contact NSIDC User Services.

EASE-Grid Brightness Temperatures Updates

NSIDC has processed updates to the NOAA/NASA Pathfinder Program Special Sensor
Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) Level 3 Equal Area Scalable Earth-Grid (EASE-Grid)
Brightness Temperatures through December 21, 2001 for the Northern Hemisphere
and May 11, 1995 - November 5, 1996 for the Southern Hemisphere. NSIDC also
announces the release of CD-ROM volumes for the Nimbus-7 Scanning Multichannel
Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) Pathfinder Daily Equal-Area Scalable Earth Grid
(EASE-Grid) Brightness Temperatures, Northern Hemisphere October 23, 1978 -
November 15, 1984 and full global October 25, 1978 - December 16, 1981.

Upward Looking Sonar Ice Draft Data and Statistics

NSIDC is pleased to announce that the Submarine ULS Ice Draft Data and Statistics
product has been updated with U.S. Navy cruise data for 1989, SCICEX data for
1998, and reprocessed SCICEX data for 1997.

CONFERENCES

MODIS Land Workshop on Radiation Budget Variables and
Snow and Ice Products

NSIDC will collaborate with the MODIS Instrument Science Team, the Land Processes
DAAC and Boston University to host a user outreach workshop, October 21-23,
2002, in Boston, MA. The goals of this workshop are to facilitate ordering,
visualization, understanding and use of the MODIS radiation budget product suite,
including snow and ice products. Scientists from the MODIS Instrument Science
Team, along with User Services representatives and tool developers from NSIDC
and other DAACs, will discuss the use of MODIS products for scientific research.
Major topics will include: